Spin Your Partner

Yeah - so I missed posting last week. I was far too pre-occupied with... well, sleep, actually. And I plan on doing the same today, but not before I share...

The final version of the 180-degree turn. Last time I posted the rough blocking, and now I return with the Hopefully-Final-Unless-My-Mentor-Rips-It-To-Shreds version.



I'm pretty happy with it. Its simple, and kinda boring, but it works mechanically, which is the important part. The next assignment we'll try to get a bit fancier. We're doing a character jumping across a series of posts, which is going to be both fun and insanely hard, especially for what I have planned. I will be back next week with some kind of horror stories I'm sure. :-)

Moosylvania

And so, the new class has begun. Each class we get a new mentor, so for Class 2 I have Brian Mendenhall, who works at Phil Tippet studios. He animated on such features as Hellboy, Enchanted, and The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Last week was planning our new assignment, a 180-degree turn, and this week we blocked-in the rough animation. I'm not going to post my planning drawings, because they are gawd-awful and I really exaggerated everything way beyond it anyway, so it's kind-of a moot point at this stage.

We are also officially done with Stu, so there probably won't be any new poses unless I have time for a bit o' fun.

Here's the rough initial blocking. Keep in mind none of this has been smoothed out yet. There are pops in the knees, some even timing, etc, which will all be smoothed out this week.



It still needs work, but so far I'm pleased with the way it's turning out.

I do, however have a new little drawing. I spent most of Week 1 in Ohio at my aunt's house, and she's pretty much obsessed with moose. Everywhere you look in her house, there's some sort of moose around. Even in the room where I slept there were at least 20 stuffed animal moose staring at me, watching my every move, waiting in the dark to strike out and eat my spleen. At one point they had me cornered, ready to roast me on spit, but I outsmarted them with this little sketch that appeased the savage beasts just long enough for me to make my escape.

So, here's College Moose:
As always, click for a larger view. Yes, it's kinda in the style of "Nick Jr." But that's what most of my stuff looks like anyway. At least, for now. Tonight I have set aside for nothing but drawing. After I watch this week's lecture, the computer will be off until midday tomorrow. Since I probably won't get my critique until sometime Monday or Tuesday, this evening is the perfect opportunity to get away from this modern electronic wizardry and spend some quality time with a pencil. :-)